Area Navy Pilot Searches for Missing Flight 370

BERWICK — Jack Kovach, age 2, is getting a lot of extra mommy time these days and missing his dad. That’s because his father, a Navy pilot, is thousands of miles away, searching for missing Flight 370 near Malaysia.

“It’s challenging being a single parent basically, but we know what he’s doing is so important,” said the pilot’s wife Jen Kovach.

U.S. Navy pilot Chris Kovach grew up in Berwick and lives there full-time with his wife Jen and kids, Jack and baby Kylie. He was deployed to Japan in November. Just a few days after Flight 370 disappeared, he was called in to search for it.

“My son just happened to be in the right area at the right time, and they called him up and said, ‘Chris, we need you to go help look for a plane that’s down.’ So it’s like, wow,” said the pilot’s father David Kovach.

Chris’s wife Jen says at first, he was told he’d only be gone for three or four days. Now 11 have passed. She says he flies at least 10 hours a day.

“They drop these buoys into the water, and the buoys expand and they’re able to see really deep down into the ocean,” said Kovach.

Chris’s dad says Chris fell in love with planes when he went to airshows at the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport when he was younger. After graduating from Berwick Area High School, he then went into training to become a naval pilot.

For the family in Berwick, these last few weeks haven’t been easy. But they say they’re proud of Chris.

“We’re all nervous for him, but he’s really good at what he does, so we just keep thinking positively.”

Chris’s wife and father said he hasn’t said much about how the mission is going. They say he’ll continue searching for the missing plane until crews find it or he’s ordered to stop.